Apparatus for generating gas.



N0. 880,015. PATENTED SEPT. 4, 1906. M. D. SHAW & W. P. RHODY. APPARATUSFOR GENERATING GAS.

APPLICATION FILED MAB. 6, 1906.

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PATENTED SBPT.4, 1906. M. D. SHAW & W. P. RHODY. APPARATUS FORGENERATING GAS.

APPLICATION FILED MAB.5, 1906.

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UNTTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MELVILLE D. SHAW AND XVILLIAM P. RHODY, OF WVAPAKONETA, OHIO.

APPARATUS FOR GENERATING GAS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

. Patented Sept. 4:, 1906.

Application filed March 5,1906. Serial No. 4, 29,

To (all 1072,0727, it may concern.-

Be it known that we, MELVILLE D. SHAW and \VILLIAM P. RHODY, citizens ofthe United States, residing at l/Vapakoneta, in the county of Auglaizeand State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful lmprovements inApparatus for Generating Gas from Crude Oil, of which the following is aspecification.

The object of our invention is to provide an apparatus or plant for usein generating gas from crude oil embodying an improved construction andassemblage of the parts; and the invention consists in certainconstructions, arrangements, and combinations of parts hereinafter fullydescribed and claimed.

For a full description of the invention and the merits thereof and alsoto acquire a knowledge of the details of construction of the means foreffecting the result reference is to be had to the following descriptionand accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a side elevation withparts in section of our improved apparatus for producing gas. Fig. 2 isa top plan view thereof with parts in section.

Corresponding and like parts are referred to in the followingdescription and indicated in all the views of the drawings by the samereference characters.

Referring to the drawings, the numeral 1 indicates an air-compressortank provided with an inlet or feed pipe 2, designed to be connected toan air-compressor of any desired type, and also provided, preferably,with a pressure-gage 3. An air-feed pipe 4 is secured at one end to theair-tank 1 and is provided with a globe-valve or similar valve 5,intended to regulate the volume or pressure of air fed from said pipe 4.The pipe 4 leads to the upper end of an oil-reservoir 6, so that.

the oil therein may be fed therefrom under pressure, and the pipe 4 isprovided adjacent the oil-reservoir 6 with a valve 7, intended toregulate the pressure of air fed to the tank. The tank 6 is providedwith a relief-valve or blow-off S.

9 designates an oil-supply tank which may be located at any desireddistance from the remainder of the apparatus, preferably outside of thebuilding and at any distance therefrom. The outlet-pipe 10 of the oilsup ply tank 9 is connected to a pump 11, which may be actuated by steamor air pressure, as desired. In the present instance the said pump is anair-pump and is actuated by means of the air from the air-tank 1'. thispurposethe inlet-pipe 12 for the pump 11 is a branch of the pipe 4, towhich it is preferably connected by a cruciform coupling 13. Anair-regulating valve 14 for the pump may be interposed in this branchpipe 12. An outlet-pipe 15 of the pump is connected by a cross-coupling16 to the oil-reservoir 6. A gage-pipe 17 is also connected to thecoupling 16 and is provided with an airgage 18, and an oil glass gage 19is also preferably connected to the pipe 17 in addition to a petcock ordrain 20. The pipe 21 is at tached at one end to the outlet of theoilreservoir 6 and is also connected to the feedpipe 22, leading tofines 27 of a furnace 23. The pipe 21 is provided with a regulatingvalve24 and with a check-valve 25, the latter being designed to prevent backpressure that might occur after the'air is relieved from the reservoir6. A branch air-pipe 26 leads from the pipe 4 to the feed-pipe 22 of thefur.- nace, so that commingled air and oil are fed into the flues 27 ofthe furnace 23. The branch 26 is provided with a regulating-valve 28, sothat the proper proportion of air may be commingled with the oil as themixture is fed to the flues 27.

The furnace 23 may be of any desired type, and the mixture of oil andair has to pass through the flues 27, heated by the furnace,

and maybe sprayed upon, if desired, by either heated air or steam. Themixture of oil and air passes back and forth through the fines 27 whichare preferably connected together at their opposite ends to provide acircuitous passage, and finally the gas that has been generated from themixture of oil and air by means of the furnace 23 is fed therefrom bymeans of the pipe 29 into the cooling mechanism 30. This latter may beconstructed of several tanks arranged so that the gas can pass throughthem successively or, it may be, as shown in the drawings composed of aseries of coils immersed in water or the like to produce the righttemperature for eflectively cooling the gas. The cooled gas is then fedby means of the pipe 31 first to the scrubber 32. The branch pipe 33,connecting the pipe 3 1 with the scrubber 32, is preferably providedwith a burner 33, so that the quality of gas may be tested before beingpassed to the scrubbing devices. The said branch pipe 31 is alsoprovided with a blow-off 34 for the purpose of allowing any impure gasto escape. The said blow-ofi' is provided with a valve For ICC

which is left open until the quantity of gas shown burning at the burner33 is adjudged to be right, and it is then closed and another valve 35is opened, so as to then permit the gas to pass into the lower end ofthe scrubber 32 by means of the pi e 36. The scrubber 32 may bepartially fi led with purifying material of any desired character mostsuitable to the existing conditions such as lime, waste, charcoal,excelsior, iron-shavings, or other analogous material. The scrubber 32is provided with an overflow-valve 37 for regulating the amount ofscrubbing material. After the gas has passed through the several layersof purifying material in the scrubber 32 it passes out of the latter bymeans of the pipe 38 into the lower end of a purifier 40. In the presentinstance the purifier 40 preferably contains water and is provided witha bell 41 and an outlet-pipe 42, through which latter the gas passesinto another scrubber or purifier 43, if desired, and. from them intoother purifiers or scrubbers by the pipe 44 or into mains orstorage-tanks.

It is to be understood that our invention is not lim ited to employingflues 27 in the furnace 23, as any desirable construction of furnace maybe used, either with or without flues.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new is- 1. Theherein-described apparatus for producing gas from crude oil, comprisingan oilsupply tank, an oil-reservoir connected therewith, a pumpconnected with the supply-tank and designed to pump the crude oiltherefrom into the oil reservoir, a furnace provided withcirculating-fines connected to the oilreservoir, a source of supply ofcompressed air operatively connected to the pump to actuate the same andalso connected to the oilreservoir and the fines of the furnace wherebythe crude oil will be pumped into the oil-reservoir, forced therefromunder pressure into the fines of the furnace, and mixed with air as itenters said fiues, and cooling and purifying devices connected to saidfines and designed to receive therefrom in a successive manner the gasgenerated. in said flues by the heat from the furnace.

2. The herein-described apparatus for generating gas from crude oil,comprising a furnace provided with flues, an oil reservoir having avalved connection with said. flues, an oil-supply tank, an air-pumpoperatively connected to the oil-supply tank and having an oil-outletpipe connected to the oilreservoir, an air-compressor tank, and a pipe 4leading therefrom and leading into the upper end of the oil-reservoir,said. pipe being provided with two branches, one of said.

branches leading therefrom at a point be tween the oil-reservoir andcompressor-tank to the air-pump and arranged to drive the same, and theother branch leading from said pipe at a point between the oil-reservoirand aircompressor, said last-named branch being connected to the pipeleading from the 0il-reservoir to the Hues, for the purpose specifiedand both said branch and the oil-pipe leading from the reservoir to thefines being provided with regulating-valves substantially as described.

3. An apparatus for generating gas from crude oil comprising asupply-tank for the crude oil, an oil-reservoir, a furnace provided withcirculating-flues, a valved connection between the oil-reservoir andsaid flues, a source of supply of compressed air having a valved pipe 4connecting it with the oil-reservoir and having a branch connection withthe fines of the furnace so that the oil forced from the oil-reservoirby the air-pressure will be fed into the flues mixed with air, a valvein the branch between said fines and the source of supply of compressedair, and arranged to control the proportion of air mixed with the oil,cooling and purifying mechanisms designed to receive the gas generated.in said flues, a pump arranged to force the oil from the tank into theoil-reservoir, and a branch pipe 12 connected to the pipe 4 between thesource of compressed-air supply and the oil-reservoir and alsooperatively connected to said pump to actuate the same.

4. An apparatus for the generation of gas from crude oil, comprising asupply-tank for the crude oil, an oil-reservoir, an air-pump designed toforce the oil from the tank to the reservoir, a furnace provided withcirculatingflues connected to the oil-reservoir, a compressed-air tankconnected to said pump to actuate the same and also connected to theoil-reservoir, and provided with a branch connected to the flues, avalve in said branch designed to regulate the amount of air passed intothe flues together with the oil from the oil-reservoir, a gas-coolingdevice connected to the outlet end of the flues and designed to receivethe generated gas therefrom, a scrubbing mechanism connected to saidcooling device and. purifiers operatively connected to said scrubbingdevice, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof we affix our signatures in presence of twowitnesses.

MELVILLE D. SHAV. WILLIAM P. RHODY.

[L. s.] [L. s.]

